Myth Buster: The Perfect Balance

Balancing work and home life is what we all strive for: we multi-task, we organize, we cut to the chase, we learn the tricks. But you know what? Having that perfect balance is an urban myth.

Let’s think about this for a minute. Balancing by its nature is risky business. Tightrope walkers balance, gymnasts balance, window washers balance. This isn’t for everyone. Sure most of us can walk a balance beam six inches from the ground but to walk it four feet up and do tricks while we’re at it?

And that’s exactly what we expect from ourselves. To have it all – walk that balance beam and do tricks while we’re at it. A few of us will succeed. Most of us will fail. We may think we are handling the job, the kids, the home, the man but really all it takes is a sick day to knock us down. If we’re down long enough and honest with ourselves, we’ll see we’re really not doing such a great job of juggling all the balls while walking a narrow beam. At most maybe we’re holding on to one ball, have one in our pocket and dropped the others- that are conveniently bouncing up and down off the beam giving the illusion that we’re the ones juggling.

Yet we all buy into the myth: balance is attainable. Maybe it’s better to do one thing at a time rather than pretend we can balance it all. The sooner we come to terms with that, the less likely for us to fall and break a leg or worse, drop a ball that simply rolls out of sight.

Thank you to my friend Jerry for exposing the myth to me.

Haleh Rabizadeh Resnick is author of Little Patient Big Doctor: One Mother’s Journey inspiring moms to trust their gut and advocate for their health.